HELP... I'm Branding!

The journey of branding, is in fact that… A JOURNEY! Who knew?! Not that I didn’t know but it is A LOT. I was listening to a TD Jakes interview with the Breakfast Club yesterday and he talked about entrepreneurship and upcoming entrepreneurs. One of the many things that really stuck out to me in the interview is that often times entrepreneurs find themselves advertising their success and not their struggle. As millennials we see people start YouTube channels, podcast, blogs, etc. and see the success and kind of get that “it’s easy, I can do it” spirit without realizing all the necessary work that is put in. Today’s post is to show a little of the hard side of branding. Not in a “I’m complaining and I hate branding” kind of way and not in a way to make you not want to consider branding but just in a way that “Here is the realness of branding” kind of way. I love what I do but there are definitely hardships I’ve encountered and things I’ve learned along the way in my journey.

As an upcoming entrepreneur there are so many tasks within being an entrepreneur that require a lot of time and hard work. You are literally ALWAYS working and building. Add that on to being a full time college student, a part time worker at now not one but THREE jobs. Side note:*Yes, I finally found a new job. Two actually, not a “Big Girl Job” but a job, lol.  I haven’t fully let go of instacarting and will definitely still be working from time to time.*  Between my hectic school schedule, work schedule and all while managing two different website. From finding people to be interviewed, being interviewed, staying up to date with the latest news and making room in my schedule to attend events around town. All while trying to have a social life, creating time to myself, battling with the finances of being a broke college student and still trying to find my husband that I’m supposed to have in the next two years, L O L, It’s A LOT! I’ve learned most to prioritize my time. I realized this is the life I chose so I have to make sacrifices. There are times that I’ve pulled over on the side of the road just to make a post or times when I leave straight from work to attend an event or an interview. You literally never stop working. THE GRIND DOES NOT STOP.

Not only do you have to make time for branding but also there is the logistics side you have to worry about. Social media is such a big factor in branding, and is such a tedious task. Staying consistent in posting content and working to get your numbers up because more numbers=more readers. Figuring out ways to advertise your work whether it’s hash tags or Google SEO, I am constantly trying to find new ways to market myself.  Then you have to actually conduct the structure of your brand/business, figuring out logos, finding your mission and staying true to it. In my case i’m always thinking,  what will I be putting on my website, what’s appropriate? What’s not? What do the readers like? Is anyone even reading? What do I want my brand to represent? It is so much that goes into branding then just branding itself. So many small things to consider. Aside from the logistic side you still have personal doubts in thinking am I doing enough? Am I showing enough personality? Am I even doing this right? It’s truly a learning experience as a whole. 

This is something I have been learning recently, I cannot do everything myself. Literally even if I wanted to, I can’t. There are skills that I don’t have that someone else may have and vise versa. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people and helping each other be successful is an important key element to branding. Some of the most successful people are only successful because of the team of people they have behind them. Right now I am in the process of crafting a team. I look at my brand as a baby and it’s actually quite nerve wrecking, I feel like I am adding people to help parent my baby. Struggling to figure out who to bring around my child, how many people I want around it and how close I want to allow people to get to my child. It is all a learning experience, finding a balance in being a businesswoman and not being “too bossy”. Learning how to not be a micro manager and overly excessive. It’s all a process and I realize it can’t be done alone.

I’m proud of myself for the work that I have done this far and staying consistent for the time that I have. I’m always trying to think of new ways to be better in my brand and learning how to stay relevant. Whether it’s releasing merch, *Shout out to N.Y.A.G. Network Shop *, adding people to the team to contribute content or allowing submissions of people’s work to be advertised on the site. I’ve learned it is important to continue to level up and try new things to keep and make my brand relevant. In this day an age everyone is doing something. Which I think is great, but what am I doing to make myself and my brand stand out? And that’s where the hard part comes in, thinking of new ways to be different yet staying consistent. Even when I don’t feel like it.

Success is definitely a process, and a journey in itself. YES, it is hard but I know that one day it will be worth it. I’m learning to not be so hard on myself and just enjoy the process. Apart of the reason that I created KUWK is so that you all can get the realness of what I am doing and not just see me doing great things. Yes it’s fun, yes I enjoy it but there are also hardships that come along with it. Please know that building anything takes time and is never easy but at the end when you see the final product it will all be worth it.

Until Next Time,